Home and Family: Back On Course and we will never live in the land of New Normal!

We are having a wonderful fall!

Hubby and I love to do things with the children on the weekends.

During the week while he works, we focus on school and some activities. As the weather gets colder we hope to get a few inside home projects done but for now we are enjoying the outside,

with the lovely fall weather and the children!

The pictures on this post are from a fall festival in our community.

Things were a bit rocky around here when I got back from Germany.

We really hadn't settled "into-a-new-normal" (snicker, snicker)!

(Yes, I read Sonja's post on No Hands BUT Ours! I loved it because I missed the bus, too.)

Although when I read it I wasn't ready to admit I had missed the bus to "new normal land"- in fact I thought there was a chance I could still hop on the next one!)

We came home from China in December 2011 and went right into medical appts for Abby and Luke (and Sam too)!

Then we had a wedding to plan and more medical appts.

Then it was 2 graduations and the wedding. Then it was a trip to Germany and sending another off to college.

Whew...

Now,

I was home and ready!

Ready for what?

Ready for the new normal to kick in!

BUT, it didn't...

(BTW God's timing is not our timing. Why, must I learn this lesson over and over again!)

I was feeling very frustrated.

We were out of sync... in fact we actually never got back into sync since we came home in December...

We just plowed through each day and did all that we had to do.

It worked for that moment in time. But now we have a chance to get back into a routine.

(I think? Until the next big event that is!)

I had been praying and praying-

for our school

for my attitude

for the children at home

for the children that will be joining us

for God's peace

for God's plan to be evident

...for a new normal...

But then I forgot to put my trust in him.

What did I want from our new normal?

happy children

organization

predictability

clean house

pretty much everything delivered on a picture perfect platter...

I think I had let the world creep into our lives once again...

it's views

it's standards

it's desires

That is not our reality.

It will never be our reality.

And I would never change our reality for that picture perfect world.

I love our imperfections!

No wonder, I was frustrated!

It is not been until recently that God has once again reminded me of our mission-

to love and serve HIM with gladness and singleness of heart.

It pleases us to please HIM!

So where are we at now?

I am happy to say we are once again at a good place!

It's not "new normal land"because we have come to realize that normal does NOT exist for our family.

We have too many moving parts.

My homeschooling expectations are more in line with my students capabilities.

We will never all be at the same level seamlessly moving along. Each child will have their days of "getting it" and "not getting it". Some days we will get through all the material with flying colors and other days we may stumble. Both days are to be viewed as successful. Stumbling is part of learning.